APTnovel Chapter 101 Making Honey Osmanthus Cake
Chapter 101 Making Honey Osmanthus Cake
This time, Lin Ran is not filming a single video, but the complete production process of honey osmanthus cake.
Picking osmanthus flowers, collecting wild honey, and making osmanthus cakes—these three parts are cut into one strip.
As long as the video quality is good, there's no need to worry about the honey not selling.
Wild honey production in the deep mountains is already low; Old Huang's dozens of beehives can only produce a few hundred kilograms a year at most.
What I'm afraid of isn't not being able to sell them, but not having enough to sell.
He first roughly edited the footage of picking osmanthus flowers, then closed his laptop, leaned against the headboard, and closed his eyes.
The rain stopped just as dawn was breaking.
Light streamed in through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating Su Peixue's face.
She nestled in his arms, her breathing shallow and even, her eyelashes casting a faint shadow on her cheek.
Lin Ran opened her eyes, looked at her for a few seconds, and couldn't resist leaning down to peck her cheek. Then she gently placed her on the pillow and got up to wash up.
Su Peixue quietly opened her eyes. Her cherry lips curled up. She reached out and touched the spot on her cheek where she had been pecked; her fingertips felt cool, unlike the temperature when she was pecked.
When Lin Ran came out of the bathroom, she was already sitting up. The collar of her pajamas was askew to one side, and her hair was piled up loosely on her shoulders. She said in a hoarse voice, "Good morning, zookeeper."
Lin Ran retied her braids, and the two changed into their filming outfits. Su Peixue was still wearing her May Fourth Movement uniform: a blue jacket, a black skirt that reached her knees, and canvas shoes.
It was barely dawn, and everyone was still asleep. Lin Ran led Su Peixue up the mountain. The mountains and fields were as clean as if they had been washed after the rain, and the fragrance of osmanthus was even stronger than yesterday, mixed with the scent of soil and grass.
The morning mist had not yet dissipated in the mountains, and dozens of beehives were scattered on the distant hillside. The morning light shone through the ridge behind the mountain, turning the mist a pale gold.
Su Peixue walked up the mountain path, the hem of her blue jacket being gently lifted by the morning breeze, her canvas shoes making muffled footsteps on the wet mud, and insects chirping among the grass.
She approached the first beehive. The swarm of bees danced above the hive, their buzzing growing louder as they drew nearer, the bees appearing like moving golden fragments in the morning light.
Su Peixue picked up the bee-proof hat and put it on with both hands. The sound of the mesh rubbing together was very fine, different from the sound of the cotton and linen fabric when she picked green plums; it was crisper.
She lifted the lid of the beehive, the sound of the wood clanging together was dull. A honeyed aroma mixed with the smell of beeswax wafted out of the hive opening, and in the camera lens, the propolis clinging to the inside of the lid could be seen reflecting the morning light.
Su Peixue forcefully pulled out a frame of bees. The frame was covered with bees, and the dense buzzing sound filled the entire soundstage of the camera. Old Huang watched her from off-camera and nodded.
Close-up of the honeycomb. The honey gleams with an amber luster in the hexagonal cells, and bees crawl slowly across the surface, their wings fluttering slightly. Some cells are already capped, and the waxy surface is covered with a thin layer of white frost.
Su Peixue held the honey-cutting knife, aimed the blade at the cap, and gently pushed forward. The sound of the wax skin being cut was unique, a dull thud that was very relaxing!
Lin Ran used to watch videos of cutting honey on Douyin (TikTok) frequently to help her fall asleep.
The cut wax skin was so thin it was translucent, and the honey dripped slowly along the edge of the wax skin, thick and sticky, forming a very thin thread.
Su Peixue placed the honeycomb into the honey extractor and began to crank it by hand. The crank made a rhythmic, creaking sound as it turned. The sound of metal gears meshing came from inside the honey extractor.
Inside the honey extractor, honey was flung out and flowed down the stainless steel inner wall. Lin Ran used slow motion, stretching out the moment the honey flew out.
Golden threads broke and reconnected in the air, slamming against the barrel wall with a series of muffled thuds, and the entire inner wall was covered with golden honey flow.
Su Peixue opened the valve. Golden honey flowed out and fell into the earthenware jar. The honey was thick and viscous as it flowed, accumulating higher and higher at the bottom of the jar.
The honey was filtered through gauze and fell into another earthenware jar. A layer of fine pollen residue and wax fragments remained on the gauze.
Su Peixue dipped her finger in honey and tasted it. Her almond-shaped eyes curved into a smile, and the beauty mark at the corner of her eye was particularly clear in the morning light.
"It's so sweet."
Su Peixue pulled her finger out of her mouth; it still had a little honey on it. She dipped it in and brought it to Lin Ran's lips.
Lin Ran opened her mouth and took it in.
The taste on the tongue is the sweetness of wild honey from the deep mountains, mixed with the fragrance of osmanthus and mountain spring water.
Xuexue the Great Demon King is really too good at this.
The others were already awake when the two descended the mountain.
He Biqiong sat in the courtyard of the farmhouse, holding a bowl of porridge. When she saw Lin Ran return, she immediately put the bowl down.
"Boss, let me take a look at the footage we shot this morning."
Lin Ran handed her the camera. She flipped through the playback, watched a few clips, and then looked up. Her expression was very serious.
"Boss, you're a photography genius. This quality... there aren't any videos of this quality on Kuaishou or Bilibili right now. Not even on the streaming platforms!"
It's not a problem with the equipment, it's a problem with the cinematic language. The boss knows when to leave a shot for how long, when to cut to a close-up, and how to make sound itself part of the narrative! There's no end to learning the boss's techniques!
Yes, that's a very good flattery, I like it very much.
Everyone who has seen the original film has praised it highly.
Lin Ran knew, of course. Ziqi's videos were popular all over the world, and countless people imitated them, but none of them could produce videos with that kind of quality.
He had specifically studied video styles and shooting techniques, knowing what kind of footage would make pupils dilate. Knowledge from a past life, material for this one.
In the afternoon, Lin Ran began filming scenes of making osmanthus cake.
The kitchen is an earthen kitchen in the backyard of the farmhouse, with mud walls and wooden beams, and a few old pumpkins on the windowsill.
The stove was stuffed with chopped pine firewood. All the ingredients were laid out on the wooden table: glutinous rice flour, regular rice flour, osmanthus flowers picked this morning, and wild honey in a ceramic jar.
Su Peixue stood in front of the wooden table and poured glutinous rice flour into a bamboo sieve to sift it. The fine powder fell through the holes of the bamboo sieve and piled up into a small mountain on the table.
She rubbed the wet powder between her hands, the powder falling softly through her fingers. The sound of her hands rubbing the powder was soft and rustling. The glutinous rice flour and regular rice flour mixed together, and the color darkened slightly after absorbing the water.
She grabbed a handful of powder, pinched it between her fingers, and the powder scattered, demonstrating that the moisture level was just right. The powder slipped through her fingers, a moment Lin Ran only captured for two seconds.
She took the osmanthus flowers from the small earthenware jar, pinched a small amount with her fingertips, and sprinkled it into the rice flour. The deep yellow dried osmanthus flowers and white rice flour mixed together created a beautiful color, like a layer of scattered gold on snow.
The act of scattering flowers was done casually, and Lin Ran gave the shot plenty of time.
Su Peixue lined the steamer with gauze, sifted the wet powder into it, and smoothed the powder with her palm without pressing it down, just gently sifting it through.
A wood-fired stove is placed on top of a steamer. Firewood is stuffed into the stove, a match is struck, and flames leap up. The firewood inside the stove crackles and pops.
Steam rose from the steamer. White steam billowed out from the seams of the steamer.
Su Peixue stood in front of the stove, waiting. Her profile was illuminated by the flickering firelight, and the blue hem of her dress rose and fell slightly below her collarbone.